It's not Malak (no tattoos on the head), but it's obviously a similar look and possibly even the same voice actor (maybe a clone?). I also like how the generic Sith armor is modelled on Darth Revan's.

As for Jedi/Sith, it's a problem every Star Wars RPG has kinda hit its head off. If you make it too hard to be a Force-user, no-one plays, if you make it too easy, then you're flooded with them. A solution could be to somehow make the Force less powerful, or balance the non-Force using classes against the Jedi, which doesn't work.

No real gameplay or any standards for the system are shown yet, so saying "this will be awesome!" is a bit naive. So far the presented has lived up to Bioware's name, but but that said; they haven't yet shown anything all that substantial. Some people already throwing around the phrase "WoW Killer" again. Lets wait til we see something before we go saying such things. We all know how Age of Conan and Warhammer turned out...

I'd like it to be a "WoW killer" because I've loved Star Wars all my life, but honestly, let's look at the record for MMOs and me:

Conan: read most of the stories, seen the movies, reasonably invested in the background. MMO failed to hold my interest.Lord of the Rings: read the trilogies, seen the movies, arguably spent most of my life playing games that borrowed tropes from it. MMO failed to hold my interest.Dungeons and Dragons: Don't want to count up all the cash I've spent on D&D stuff over the last twenty years. MMO failed to hold my interest.World of Warcraft: Played WC2 a few times, laughed at the voices, not really invested in the background. Been playing for five years now.

It could be that the first three weren't especially good MMOs, but it seems the less invested I am in an MMO's background, the more I can enjoy it for what it is. And there's few properties I'm as invested in as a fan than Star Wars.

On the other hand we have Bioware, who I hold up with Blizzard (and maybe Bethsada) as companies I have confidence in producing an engaging product. However, Bioware have specialized in delivering satisfying single-player games with a definite end. I'm not sure how they can leverage that experience into something as open-ended as an MMO. And it's going to have to be supremely awesome out of the box to compete with 6+ years of WoW. We all saw what "we'll make it more interesting in future patches" did for Warhammer and AoC.

People often complain about it, but a massive part of WoWs charm is the fact it is not only serious, it keeps its cartoony, humor side about it. A factor many other games lack, and often the reason they don't expand much beyond thier target audience.

Bliz have done an amazing job to not only aim at an audience that are long time WC players, but also newcomers, casuals and the hardcore numbercrunchers.

Conan, warhammer, lotr; no appeal to me. I haven't read thier books, played thier other games, seen thier movies. (in before lolufail) but seriously, just don't appeal to me, and they don't seem very inviting for me, or new players to try and get involved.

Champions Online has caught my interest; I'm a massive fan of superhero genre, it seems well worked on, and thus far very open to new comers and those who have played the old Champions stuff. I don't know if it will keep up in the long run, as thats not something Cryptic seem to be overly talented at (ie end game City of Heroes) but I will most likely give it a good go.

I'm a decent fan of star wars. Love me saber battles and whatnot. Also the KOTOR games set a good position for the world to start with. As an MMO it is already under threat of balance issues with lolgodmode force users. I for one will be watching to see how well they pull off this issue alone. As a company, Bioware have an amazing standard, easily on par with Bliz in my eyes. They don't have the omgblockbuster mmo or sports game starcraft that Bliz do, but their work speaks for itself with ie KOTOR, Mass Effect and so on. They have a good chance of pulling it off. And I'd like to see how well they do.

>.> Sonic; Dark Brotherhood is scratched from the record. No one can save Sonic at this point.

Ilara wrote:As a company, Bioware have an amazing standard, easily on par with Bliz in my eyes. They don't have the omgblockbuster mmo or sports game starcraft that Bliz do, but their work speaks for itself with ie KOTOR, Mass Effect and so on. They have a good chance of pulling it off. And I'd like to see how well they do.

That's the problem though. Blizzard have some experience of a diversity of games with the Isometric clickfests like the Diablo games and their RTSes. You could possibly even argue that battle.net gave them a toe in the shallow end of the MMO pool.

Bioware have basically done one game really well. The single-player western RPG. Ok NWN had an online element, but that was entirely third-party hosted. I'm certain that the levelling experience in SW:TOR will be wonderful, but it's wether or not they manage to do well in the endgame that will make or break them.

One thing that would interest me is if your Light Side/Dark Side standing can affect your faction. That would be a really unique mechanic, if a difficult one to implement well.

No argument. They will find it hard. Certainly doesn't help their topic of choice is Star Wars.I'm simply stating that I'm still of the belief; If any other company than Bliz is capable of bringing out "the big one", its Bioware.

If it's done well - even if not a "WoW-killer" for the mass populace - it'll definitely win me over. I could have so much fun running around in a Star Wars universe though. I never did endgame stuff in Galaxies, yet, if they hadn't ruined it with the two different "combat upgrades", I'd never have left.

Ilara wrote:No argument. They will find it hard. Certainly doesn't help their topic of choice is Star Wars.I'm simply stating that I'm still of the belief; If any other company than Bliz is capable of bringing out "the big one", its Bioware.

Don't get me wrong, Bioware and Star Wars together again makes me happy in ways that I'm not comfortable sharing with strangers. And I would love to be able to swap my Paladin for a Jedi, but I've been hurt before and I'm no longer quick to trust.

Sure, Jedi and Sith are all cool looking with their lightsabers, but I've always enjoyed the other aspects of Star Wars. The smuggling, the bounty hunting, pretty much anything involving the Huts. In Galaxies, I floved the Entertainer aspects. There is so much in the setting that can lend to more than Jedi.

Yes, I know, most of the min-maxers will want to be Jedi because they feel that they should be supremely powerful. However, I just feel that there can be so much more to the game than just the Jedi, and if Bioware does it correctly, they can show the power of other classes.

Take for instance, the Saga Edition Star Wars RPG out right now. I'm in a table top game of it right now, and we have a Human Jedi, a Wookie Melee brawler, a Droid Rifle Specialist, and a Human Scout. The Jedi - for all the neat little tricks he can do from time to time to be powerful - pales in comparison of the brute force of our Wookie wielding his Vibroaxe. So, if Bioware uses anything similar to the kinds of ideas the latest RPG is using, they should be able to make interesting choices available for people who want to be powerful without everyone having to be Jedi/Sith.

We'll see. I personally wouldn't mind being a Han-Solo type, but I'm not sure if the game will have that robust a space combat system (or a space combat system at all). I always hated the turret minigame in KotOR.

Aldonza wrote:As a major fan girl of Star Wars, I'm giggling with glee over this.

If it's done well - even if not a "WoW-killer" for the mass populace - it'll definitely win me over. I could have so much fun running around in a Star Wars universe though. I never did endgame stuff in Galaxies, yet, if they hadn't ruined it with the two different "combat upgrades", I'd never have left.

I can't wait. /drool

This.. except for the girl part.

I was discussing the game with my gf who is also a huge mmo, rpg, and star wars fan. She -loved- the baulder's gate and neverwinter nights games. She never played KOTOR and mass effect. We were talking about how blizzard never makes bad games. All of them are good, but they are approachable RTS games primarily along with diablo which is a point and click adventure game with rpg elements. All amazing game, so it would make sense that they would make an amazing mmo.

Bioware is known for making some of the best RPGs available. I haven't played all of them like I have with blizzard games, but looking at reviews and customer experiences; they are consistent with making amazing and in depth RPGs. They say that the KOTOR mmo will have more story elements than all of their previous games combined. I have great faith in their ability to take that skill with making games and telling stories into the mmo world and making something like we have never seen before.